


Picture Perfect (look in the mirror and you'll see)

by Do_the_Cool_Whip



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Age Reversal, Alpha Bruce Wayne, Alpha Cassandra Cain, Alpha Damian Wayne, Alpha Jason Todd, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Beta Alfred Pennyworth, Beta Stephanie Brown, Beta Tim Drake, Gen, Omega Dick Grayson, reverse batfam
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-07
Updated: 2020-03-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:40:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23054107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Do_the_Cool_Whip/pseuds/Do_the_Cool_Whip
Summary: He is Damian al Ghul Wayne, son of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul, heir to the mantle of the Batman and the League of Assassins. Damian knows exactly who he is. Or at least he does until a pair of teary blue eyes blink up at him. (Or the one where everyone watches as baby!Dick forces Damian [and Bruce] on a long arduous trip to find the true meaning of family, love, and himself.)
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson & Damian Wayne, Stephanie Brown & Cassandra Cain & Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Jason Todd & Damian Wayne
Comments: 40
Kudos: 318





	Picture Perfect (look in the mirror and you'll see)

**Author's Note:**

> I keep telling myself I'm not going to post anything until it's finished and then ignoring that and posting anyways. I have a lot of things that are like this: things that I started ages ago, but haven't really worked on in a while. I think I might try posting some of them to gauge interest and see if I should even bother to work on some of them.
> 
> If you're interested, here's a breakdown of the concept for this fic:
> 
> I see a lot of reverse batfam fics and, as fun as they are, I don't really understand the family structure too much. Damian tends to be a really great older brother who cares about his siblings and the whole family gets along great when baby!Dick is introduced, but I'm always like: what?! How did this happen? They barely function together with Dick as the eldest and seem to work best when they all separate and do their own thing.
> 
> I think canon Bruce got really lucky with the order of kids he got. He starts off with Dick who despite being a grieving mess when he joins the family has a very good understanding of his own needs and desires and isn't afraid to ask or take them. If Dick needs a hug, he'll walk up to Bruce and hug him. If he needs to talk, he'll start chattering. Through Dick, Bruce learns a lot of the basics for raising children. And then he has a messy falling out with Dick.
> 
> Enter Jason who has his own slew of issues. But, Bruce has learned the basics from Dick and is able to apply them to Jason while slowly figuring out how to help Jason with the other problems Jason has that Dick never did. And things are great for awhile, Jason is growing up pretty good and though he faces plenty of new problems with the whole kid raising thing, Bruce is doing an adequate job of raising Jason. And then Jason dies.
> 
> Which is how we get Tim. Now, Tim enters Bruce's care under an entirely different circumstance and has very different expectations of Bruce. Bruce is a mess, but Tim is pretty self-sufficient and patient. By the time Bruce gets around to being able to parent Tim, Tim is pretty secure in his role in Bruce's life. If Dick teaches Bruce the basics of parenting and emotional support and Jason teaches him the importance of patience, anger management, and positive reinforcement, then Tim teaches him that the joys of parenthood. It's through Tim that Bruce realizes that he does enjoy being a parent. And then he has a falling out with Tim.
> 
> Stephanie joins the fray during another one of Bruce's low points. She becomes his punching bag. Bruce does everything he possibly can to keep her at a distance, refusing to let her in the way he did his other kids, because as much as being a parent makes him happy, the vast majority of his most painful experiences are directly related to his kids. This is around the time he realizes that Jason's death was infinitely more traumatic for him than the death of his parents, and so, he does his very best to make sure that he never goes through that sort of pain again, by keeping Steph as far from him emotionally as he possibly can. And then Stephanie "dies".
> 
> And Bruce realizes: Holy shit, I love all of my kids regardless of whether I want to or not. I care and I can't turn that off.
> 
> Cue Damian who is a disaster because Talia raised him and so he is so many levels of fucked up. Damian needs help, but Bruce doesn't really understand how to help him when he doesn't even feel like he can trust him. It's a messy situation that requires a very delicate balancing act that Bruce tries to figure out. And then Bruce "dies".
> 
> Dick does all the hard work with Damian. By the time Bruce returns, Damian is mostly sorted out. He's definitely still a little fucked in the head, but he's a bat, so that just makes him cute to the rest of the family. 
> 
> Duke walks into a family that more or less has its shit together and a Bruce that can finally be a parent, while Cass avoids all of this insanity by staying in Hong Kong most of the time.
> 
> This fic is based on the idea that if Bruce got Damian first, the whole family just crumbles down. Bruce was anti-social before Damian and Damian exacerbated those tendencies. They made each other worse and no one was able to soften their edges, which results in Bruce having a kid he can't trust, doesn't know how to create trust, and doesn't want to trust. He gets along better with an entirely self-sufficient Tim, which only strains his relationship with Damian further, which makes Damian treat Tim worse, and creates a cycle between them.
> 
> There are plenty of other things this causes, but that's the jist of it and the foundation for this fic. Bruce doesn't know how to parent. Damian doesn't know how to family. And Dick is an adorable six-year-old who is going to fix this family whether they like it or not.

Damian hears the sobs as he walks down the hall to his room. He has every intention of ignoring them, just as he has every other time this past fortnight. Father’s latest addition to the manor spends a majority of its time at night crying and Damian has gotten much better at tuning it out than he had when it had first arrived.

Damian feel his eye twitch at the reminder of its arrival here. He still doesn’t even understand why Father had taken the omega in. With Drake and Brown, Damian knew the only reason Father had allowed them into the household was to keep a close eye on them. Drake had determined Father's identity as Batman and, like a fool, accidentally revealed it to Brown.

Todd is here because when Father had brought him to the cave to interrogate him about a case, Brown had foolishly walked unmasked into the room, calling for Father by his name and revealing his identity. Cain, the only tolerable one amongst the brats, is here so she cannot be used against Father. Grandfather had been training her to be one of his bodyguards, and as Grandfather is one of Father's enemies, Father wanted to remove one potential obstacle between him and Grandfather.

But, Grayson... There was no reason for Father to have taken him in. He was not privy to their hero personas nor was he connected to one of their enemies. It is a seemingly senseless and pointless decision. If anyone else had made this choice, Damian would know it was because they were a sentimental fool, taking in Grayson because it echoed their past. But this was Father, and the echoes of his past were too superficial. The Waynes had been murdered; the Graysons had died from their own stupidity. There really is no reason for Father to have brought Grayson here instead of letting the system take care of him.

Despite Father's concern, the social worker made it very clear that Grayson's placement in the Juvenile Detention Centre was only temporarily; and therefore, not a cause for concern.

Damian's hand closes around his doorknob at the same time a small crash echoes through the hallway. Damian pauses for a second and waits for someone to come out and check on Grayson. When no one comes, Damian runs through all of the reasons no one has left their room. Drake and Brown had probably assumed it was him, and given their pathetic efforts in the field earlier, they were right to attempt to avoid his wrath. Cain and Todd were most likely staying out of it and minding their own business. Which just left Father and Pennyworth. Father is still in the cave and Pennyworth insisted on rooming in a separate wing of the manor.

In all likelihood, Damian is the one who is aware that something has occurred in Grayson's room, and while he would very much like to ignore it and retire to his own room for a well-deserved night's rest, he just knows that if he does in the morning they'll find Grayson's corpse. The fool will have died in some easily preventable manner had Damian just checked in on him. On the other hand, if he goes to check on Grayson, he just knows nothing will be wrong.

In the end, Damian walks over to the room beside his own because his relationship with Father is strained enough and if he wants to avoid losing his birthright to someone inferior, like Drake, he needs to avoid giving Father any reason to pass him over. And the death of Grayson sounds exactly like the sort of thing that Drake would take advantage of in order to further stain Damian's relationship with his father in hopes of stealing Damian's inheritance.

Damian walks into Grayson's room without knocking, there's no point in giving one of the many intruders in this house more courtesy than they deserve.

The wall in front of him, is mostly window, simple white curtains frame the structure, with a glass door that leads to the balcony. One of the windows is wide open, sending a chilly breeze through the room, and causing the curtains to sway ever so slightly. Perpendicular to the wall on his left is the bed, the plain white sheets on the mattress are still immaculate, the crisp lines that fold along the edges of the mattress beneath without crinkling, no doubt the work of Pennyworth. There's a matching bedside table made of polished mahogany on the same side of the bed as Damian, with a lamp resting on top that bathes the room in a soft yellow glow. The dresser that belongs to the set is on his right, taking up space against the wall and Damian barely spares it a glance as he steps fully into the room.

The room is sparse, which makes sense as there is no reason for Father to spend money on another intruder attempting to infringe upon his territory. The walls are a pristine white, unmarked by any sort of paraphilia that Drake and Brown like to use to defile their bedrooms, covering all of their walls in posters of foolish nonsense.

Against the right wall, is a desk, centered between two doors. The door closer to the window is the closet and the other door leads to the shared bathroom.

When Damian had originally selected his room, he had done so because it had the best view of the scenery, while also remaining near Father. Had he known that Father would reluctantly open the manor up to the intruders, he would have foregone the view and taken either Todd or Drake's room, both of which had private bathrooms.

The chair in front of the desk is toppled over, and if not for the mound of red silk blanket and quiet sniffling, almost muffled sobs, coming from underneath the desk, Damian would think that some someone had taken pity on him and kidnapped the heathen, so Damian would have one less peasant attempting to steal his inheritance.

He walks over to the window, slamming it shut, before storming over to the desk and setting the chair upright. "Get out from under there, Grayson." The boy does not immediately comply and Damian has half a litany of curses, several of which explain Grayson's family lineage, prepared to be unleashed, when the tiny six-year-old crawls out from beneath the desk, clutching a battered grey elephant plush to his chest.

The boy looks up at Damian with tears in his blue eyes and Damian is forced to hold back his sneer at the obvious attempt at emotional manipulation. The bags under his slightly red eyes and the gaunt, almost starved look of his face, are all just a carefully crafted ruse designed to distract him. "Yes?" the boy mumbles, his tone completely insolent in its fake sorrow. It was just another attempt to elicit sympathy from Damian; unfortunately, for Grayson, Damian is already aware of his plan.

Damian ignores his insolence, having grown far too used to being unallowed to remind his inferiors of the reasons he was their superior. It was almost pathetic the sorts of lows his father forced him to undergo. The only reason he hasn't abandoned Gotham and returned to his mother where he'd be properly respected is because the odds of his inheritance being passed on to someone unworthy, like Drake, is too high for Mother or Grandfather to risk. "Why were you under the desk?"

Grayson hesitates, eyes flickering around the room and Damian interrupts him before the boy can even finish mentally constructing his lie. "The truth, Grayson. I do not tolerate lies and I shall know whether you speak truth."

Grayson looks at him silently for a long while and Damian can almost hear the omega's mental debate as to whether or not he should lie. "The room," he finally whispers, "the room is too big."

Damian hides his amusement before it has time to form on his face. So, the boy decided to go with the lie, did he? "Is that so?" he asks, keeping his voice perfectly neutral.

The boy looks shocked for a second, before the tension bleeds out of his form as relief settles on his face. "Uh-huh. And when I'm all by myself it tries to eat me and the monsters try to get me, so I was going to hide under the desk because then the monsters can't get me because they're too big to fit under the desk." There's a small blush forming on his face and Damian isn't surprised at the sight of it. Anyone would be embarrassed after spewing such a preposterous lie.

"And where exactly are these monsters?"

Grayson looks startled at the question, most likely he hasn't thought to fabricate this part of his lie any further. "Are you going to scare them away?" he asks, stalling for time and looking up at Damian with his wide blue eyes.

"Indeed."

"How?"

Damian scowls at him, searching for a lie, before giving up and giving an indirect, but truthful, answer. "Monsters are afraid of me," he smirks, thinking of the Gotham scum that goes scurrying at just the sight of his silhouette.

"Wow," Grayson breathes, looking appropriately awed.

"Their location?" he asks, raising an eyebrow. Grayson points at the closet and Damian keeps the scowl off his face until his back is to Grayson. Damian approaches the closet cautiously, he doesn't know what sort of trap Grayson is attempting to lure him into, but it would not due to be caught off guard. As expected, the closet is not infested with any sort of monster and is completely empty. Damian can only assume that Grayson's meagre belongings are tucked away inside the dresser.

He exits the closet and Grayson peaks up at him from behind his elephant that his face is half buried into. "Did you get them?" he asks.

Damian nods, refusing to end this charade, "They took one look at me and fled." Grayson was clearly up to something beneath the desk and Damian will find out and reveal it to Father, hopefully gaining his favour and removing one of many nuisances. "Now, I believe you stated that the room attempts to eat you when you're alone." At Grayson's answering nod, Damian holds back a smirk trying to escape. "In that case, I shall stay the night here, so you won't be devoured." He locks eyes with the boy, conveying how the omega has trapped himself with his own stupid lie.

Grayson, unexpectedly, begins to smile. "Really?"

"Indeed."

"And you'll stay all night?" Damian nods, wondering how well hidden the boy's secret is that he's willing to allow Damian to stay the night to search for it.

"It's been a long day," he says, which isn't a lie, "and it is my understanding that your bedtime was hours ago." He gestures to the bed and waits for Grayson to crawl in, dragging the red blanket behind him, before joining him and turning off the lamp. It doesn't take long for Grayson to fall asleep and the second he does, Damian counts to three hundred, before carefully slipping out of bed and moving to investigate the desk.

His first inspection, hindered by a lack of light, reveals nothing. He traces his fingers over the underside of the desk, searching for a hidden compartment that Grayson may be utilizing for his secret. When he finds nothing, his mounting frustration causes him to foolishly smack his hand against the sliding tray that usually contains a keyboard.

Instantly, Damian throws himself away from the desk, rolling to his feet in front of the door leading back to the hallway. Grayson jerks into a sitting position before Damian manages to turn around and face him.

"You said you would stay all night," the boy states. Damian narrows his eyes and tries to determine what his angle is. When Damian doesn't respond, Grayson repeats himself. "You said you would stay _all_ night."

What arrogance, Damian decides, stalking closer to the bed. He's convinced I won't find his secret. "I am aware of what I said."

Grayson gives a jerky nod, still eyeing him suspiciously, before pulling the red blanket down and patting the spot beside him. Though it chafes his pride, Damian is determined to discover Grayson's secret, hopefully it's something that will force Father to remove him from the manor, and obeys the unspoken order, laying down beside Grayson. Grayson sprawls down over top of him, tugging the blanket back up to his shoulders.

Damian must commend his adversary for laying such am intrinsic trap. In this position, Damian will be unable to continue his investigation.

Unfortunately for Grayson, he has already prepared for the chance that he would not immediately find what he was looking for. He'll just return to Grayson's quarters tomorrow night, with a flashlight. After all, he can't possibly leave Grayson alone to be devoured by his room. Damian falls asleep with Grayson's weight on his chest and a knowing smirk on his lips.

He wakes up on his side, one arm pillowed under his head and the other clutching Grayson close to him, with a vague recollection of fighting Grayson for a more comfortable position before they both settled on this. He releases the boy, leaving the bed, but his movements must have woken Grayson because he sits up, yawning and stretching as he turns to look at Damian.

At the sight of him, Grayson grins, "You stayed!"

"I said I would, did I not?" He turns to leave the room when he hears Grayson laugh and feels the omega attack him. Legs wrap around his waist and arms circle around his neck. Damian isn't sure what prompted this attack, what its purpose is, as Grayson giggles plastered against his back, but Grayson is a fool if he thinks Damian will allow it to proceed any further.

He untangles Grayson from him with ease, spins and tosses him back to the bed. He does this carefully to prevent injury to Grayson; even though Grayson will have deserved it. Because he is aware of how Drake can use Grayson to give Father another grievance against his son. Grayson laughs gleefully as he bounces on the bed. "Again!" he cries, launching himself at Damian once more.

They continue for a while, Damian's throws getting more elaborate the longer they go on. It's a relief to be able to practice his skills with someone who doesn't immediately run to Father whining that he's using "excessive force". Already Damian can imagine how to modify these throws so they can be used against larger opponents.

One more toss sends Grayson giggling as the boy rights himself in the air, landing on his feet, and Damian can see the muscles tightening in his legs as he prepares to lunge forward once more.

“Ahem.” Damian whirls around at the sound and Pennyworth gives him an odd look. He lacks the customary telltale downward curl to his lips that graces him whenever he interacts with Damian; instead, his lips are quirked upwards and his eyes are soft with something Damian has no hope of identifying.

Grayson bounces on the bed and Damian resists the urge to swat the child when the boy clutches the back of his shirt and peeks at Pennyworth from behind him. “Master Damian,” Pennyworth pauses for a brief second, eyes flickering towards Grayson, “It is 8:00. You will have to breakfast on the road.”

Incompetent. This is the most incompetent thing Pennyworth has ever allowed to occur. “Why did you not wake me earlier?”

Pennyworth dares to raise a single eyebrow. “I could not find you.”

Grayson makes a displeased noise, stepping out from behind Damian. “He was with me” he says firmly, moving to stand between Damian and Pennyworth. “He scared away the monsters in my closet and stayed all night so the room wouldn’t eat me.” There’s something odd about his voice, something hard and challenging, almost argumentative. Damian eyes the boy, trying to get a read on him, as Grayson crosses his arms.

He comes up empty, unable to explain what is going on between Grayson and Pennyworth, as the two of them continue to size each other up. In the end, Pennyworth smiles at Grayson. “Is that so?”

“Mm-hmm,” he nods, arms uncrossing, and Damian is baffled at the way Pennyworth looks at him in the brief second he looks away from Grayson.

“I see. Well, Master Richard, it is time for you to get ready for the day. Off to the washroom with you.”

“Okay.” Grayson agrees, but he doesn’t leave immediately. He hesitates for a moment. He spins on his heels and assaults Damian once more. Damian mentally applauds his foes strategy once more. Attacking him in front of Pennyworth, but turning down the force behind his attack, allows Grayson to escape without repercussions.

Damian waits for the assault to end, knowing from past experience that exacting retribution will only be a setback for him if the adults see him.

Pennyworth watches them through inscrutable eyes as Grayson pulls away from him and performs a series of cartwheels to the bathroom.

“Monsters, Master Damian?” Pennyworth raises an eyebrow, obviously seeing through the pathetic excuse as easily as Damian had.

“Obviously not,” Damian sneers. “I just didn’t want to listen to his snivelling all night.”

Pennyworth pauses, eyes widening just a touch. “I beg your pardon?”

“He spends every night sobbing loudly enough to wake the dead. No one has made an attempt to rectify this and I have finally had enough of listening to it.”’ It’s a lie. Of course it’s a lie. Damian has learned enough living here that he knows better than to reveal what he knows of Grayson’s plans unless he knows all of it.

His suspicions and insights will be dismissed as jealousy and paranoia. Damian can’t say anything until he uncovers Grayson’s plot. Then, and only then, will he be rid of the newest intruder on his inheritance.

No one ever claimed Damian al Ghul Wayne does not learn from his… setbacks. And every breath that Drake draws is a setback.

Pennyworth is silent, still looking at Damian with the strange soft incomprehensible expression. It sets Damian on edge, the lack of hidden disdain and annoyance from Pennyworth throws him off. He can’t read the situation. Bad things happen when Damian is unable to read a situation in the manor.

He makes a tactical retreat to the bathroom, following Grayson through the door leading to their shared bathroom.

Grayson is brushing his teeth in the sink nearest to him and Damian watches him as he crosses the room to stand in front of his own sink. Grayson peeks at him, his gaze drifting to stare at Damian in the reflection of the mirror.

He’s up to something.

The omega takes two steps to the left, the way he takes care to be silent indicating his intentions are to be subtle. Grayson looks around the bathroom, eyeing the shower and the bathtub, before taking another three “subtle” steps closer to Damian.

He has no idea what the boy is after. Never has he performed his morning ablutions with Grayson present. He has never been in the bathroom with the boy before today.

That will have to change.

After another five steps, Grayson stands beside him. He leans forward to spit into Damian’s sink and Damian barely manages to conceal his outrage and disgust when the boy looks up to happily grin at him.

He has to make a decision: either react or observe. It’s not much of a decision. He was too hasty with Drake. He was too hasty with all of them, which is why they are still here. He won’t do that again. He refuses to allow himself to be provoked.

Damian holds his tongue, maintaining the silence as Grayson continues to brush his teeth beside him instead of at his end of the bathroom.

What impudence. Damian isn’t sure what Grayson is up to, but he will find out.

**Author's Note:**

> I like to think one night, Dick's kid will run up to Uncle Damian and cry about a monster in his closet, only for Damian to roll his eyes and head to "check" and Damian will realize that Dick legitimately thought a monster was in his closet when he was six and their entire relationship is based on a misunderstanding.


End file.
